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PMQs - The Verdict
Edward Davie
If a week is said to be a long time in politics then the next month is going to feel like an age as we wait for Tony Blair to finally bow out.
After the announcement that he is resigning on June 27, prime minister's questions is feeling increasingly redundant as everyone waits for Blair to wind up his farewell tour and hand over to Gordon Brown.
To the annoyance of some in his own party the tour includes key EU and G8 talks that could lock Brown into long-term commitments he may not agree with.
Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay asked the prime minister to invite the chancellor to the European summit in order to share decisions that cannot be reversed.
Seeing as Blair would leave Downing Street within days of those key decisions it did seem a reasonable point.
David Cameron made it clear he has already moved on by asking Blair to "advise the next prime minister" to take action on the issues he raised rather than deal with them himself.
Calling the session "proximity talks", the Tory leader also reinforced the sense that he intends to make the NHS a key battleground when he faces Brown across the despatch box.
Commentators often suggest that Cameron and those close to him have read and are replicating the New Labour handbook pre-1997.
A key plank of that was Labour's relentless assault on the Conservative health service record. It remains to be seen when, as Blair pointed out, 90 per cent of NHS users think the NHS is "excellent or good," this will be effective.
Cameron said that billions of pounds in investment had been wasted under Labour but also argued that the reforms currently underway were damaging.
Blair successfully pointed out that Cameron and his party had opposed the investment and were now opposing reform - suggesting the Conservatives could not have it both ways. However the beauty of opposition is that sometimes you can.
If Blair managed to defend the NHS the same could not be same for the "lame duck" health secretary who, according to Cameron, had been "hung out to dry" by the prime minister.
The prime minister did not back Hewitt and her days as health secretary are surely numbered.
And Cameron wasn't satisfied with taking on just one minister. He went on to attack housing minister Yvette Cooper on home information packs, communities secretary Ruth Kelly on the same subject, and home secretary John Reid and justice secretary Lord Falconer over the creation of the Ministry for Justice.
Blair hit back at Cameron's rejection of HIPs, which had included energy performance certificates designed to encourage homebuyers to take measures to save energy.
"He says he cares about the environment but when there is a specific measure to help the environment he opposes it. He opposed the climate change levy, he is now opposing the energy performance certificates and he can't say where he stands on nuclear power," the prime minister said.
It is part of Labour's strategy to portray Cameron's leadership as lightweight and Blair did so by listing legislation and measures the government was busy introducing in contrast to Tory in-fighting over grammar schools.
"It's an argument from the stone age, so while this party is getting on with the serious business of politics he can't even take his party with him on this issue," Blair said of Cameron.
Later a nervous Sir Menzies Campbell (who can blame him with his back to his MPs, some of whom are plotting his own departure) asked why the prime minister did not seek a mandate in any of his manifestos for building new nuclear power stations and why he was so keen on them now.
Carrying on the theme that the opposition were opposing measures to cut carbon emissions, Blair insisted that without them the UK would be reliant on coal, oil and gas from unstable countries.
The Verdict
Tony Blair - 8/10 - A strong performance suggests he still thinks he is in charge.
David Cameron - 7/10 - On the NHS and the environment he wants to have his cake and eat it, lack of detailed policies beginning to show.
Sir Menzies Campbell - 6/10 - Not particularly strong questions, weakly delivered.
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Published: Wed, 23 May 2007 16:23:17 GMT+01
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